New York, NY - Critics Continue To Sound Alarm About Increase In Response Time From Fire Department

New York, NY - Three years after the Fire Department closed six engine companies, critics continue to sound the alarm that the closings have dangerously increased response times to fires and other emergencies.

Four of the closed engine companies were in Brooklyn - 204 in Cobble Hill, 209 in Williamsburg, 212 in Greenpoint and 278 in Sunset Park. Also closed were Engines 36 in East Harlem and 261 in Long Island City, Queens.

The closings "have made our jobs much more difficult," said Capt. Peter Gorman, president of the Uniformed Fire Officers Association. He is set to release data showing significant increases in response times citywide over the past three years - which he blames in part on the closings of the six engine companies on May 25, 2003.

The response time to structural (building) fires in 2002 was "an excellent four minutes and 13 seconds," Gorman noted. But since the closings "the average response time rose to four minutes and 36 seconds by 2005," he said.